Atlantic Monthly Contributors's Blog, page 1008

The U.S. Already Wants Venezuela to Send Snowden Home

Edward Snowden is still living out a Tom Hanks movie in a Russian airport, but before Friday evening his pursuit of a new home was starting to resemble a nerd's quest to find a prom date: all rejection. But two countries have stepped forward and offered Snowden shelter, even if they have no idea how to rescue him from Russia. 

The U.S. has pre-emptively sent an extradition request to Venezuela should the hacker find his way to the country after their president offered him a safe haven in the South American country. Hopefully they     

Why the New York Public Library Is Being Sued

The New York Public Library's controversial renovation plan — which has attracted no shortage of public criticism over the past several months — is now the subject of a lawsuit filed by a group of preservationists and scholars. Aiming to stop the library from removing its research stacks from its iconic Fifth Avenue building, the suit charges that the imminent plan not only violates its charter, which establishes the institution as a research facility rather than a circulation library, but "will surely doom the NYPL's mission to serve the public's research and reference needs." Plus, it alleges, "if the stacks are destroyed, the books — the unique and distinguishing asset of the NYPL — can never be returned to their rightful place under the Rose Main Reading Room."

Among the plaintiffs (who are represented by the nonprofit Advocates for Justice) are architect Mark Alan Hewitt, publishing veteran Jack Macrae, and Pulitzer-winning historian David Levering Lewis. But they are not the first, and likely won't be the last, to blast the library for its consolidation plan, which is estimated at $300 million and involves selling the the Mid-Manhattan Library and the Science, Industry, and Business Library so their operations may be integrated into the main branch. (The removal of two to three million books, to a storage space in New Jersey, ostensibly makes room for this integration.)

Memorably, in December, Wall Street Journal architecture critic Ada Louise Huxtable authored a scathing, nearly 2,000-word essay arguing that the library's plan would sufficiently "undertake its destruction" and compromise the accessibility of its holdings: 

This is a plan devised out of a profound ignorance of or willful disregard for not only the library's original concept and design, but also the folly of altering its meaning and mission and compromising its historical and architectural integrity. You don't "update" a masterpiece. "Modernization" may be the most dangerously misused word in the English language.

Huxtable, then 91, died only a month later. But her cause carried on. Soon came harsh judgments from The New York Times' Michael Kimmelman, who warned library officials that "the last thing they’d want to be remembered for is trashing their landmark building and digging a money pit"; The Nation's Scott Sherman, who noted "the willingness of [NYPL's] president, [Tony] Marx, to put forth dubious assertions"; and Policy Mic's Jewelyn Cosgrove, who stressed the importance of "preserv[ing] the very nature of public use libraries." There was even a May 8 rally opposing the library plan:

But library president Tony Marx argues that the building itself is "physically failing," its stacks effectively unworkable, rendering such drastic changes necessary. Library spokesman Ken Weine said yesterday that the plan will "improve libraries for all New Yorkers," while the Daily News' Jenny Che has voiced support for the decision to ax the decrepit Mid-Manhattan branch. But what is done to compensate for that absence, however, remains at the heart of the controversy — and the broader discussion regarding what it means to have a public library that is accessible to all.

       

Steve Wozniak Listened to Kanye's Business Ideas

After visiting Kanye West, Kim Kardashian, and baby North in the hospital a few days ago, Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak is now opening up about what was probably a pretty weird afternoon. Kardashian set up the visit as a Father's Day present to West, complete with a signed Apple Pro Computer mouse by the late Steve Jobs. Wozniak signed one for West in person. Then he listened to West's "business ideas" while Kim and her sisters hung out in another room with the baby. 

Wozniak didn't elaborate on Kanye's big plans, but told ABC News, "It was an excellent conversation for about two hours . . . I some comments to give him. I have been thinking about it since the meeting." Oh, to be a fly on that hospital wall. And all that time, Kim and her sisters were next door, chilling with the baby. Was Scott Disick there? Bruce Jenner? It's a lot to picture.

Kanye has a particular affinity for Apple, believing himself to be the next Steve Jobs. He famously told The New York Times last month, "I honestly feel that because Steve has passed, you know, it’s like when Biggie passed and Jay-Z was allowed to become Jay-Z … I will be the leader of a company that ends up being worth billions of dollars, because I got the answers." Wozniak noted that when you "visualize yourself in a certain way," anything can happen, so maybe he believes in Kanye, too. 

And Woz seemed to be into Kim's idea for Kanye's gift because he's a romantic at heart: 

She wanted to do something nice, outstanding and unusual for her man. In this day and age you really have to put a thinking cap on. I believe in signs of true love. I wanted to be a part of this.

Aww. Kind of weird coming from a guy who once dated Kathy Griffin on her reality show My Life on the D-List, but it's nice. 

       

America's Most Feces-Polluted Beaches, Mapped

There is nothing more refreshing on a hot, Fourth of July weekend than a nice dip in the ocean. Everyone loves a good swim, after all, though that enthusiasm may be tempered by the fact that the Environmental Protection Agency says a beach is safe for swimming if only one out of every 28 beachgoers gets sick. Here, as a public service, are the beaches that, in 2012, upped those odds significantly.

Every year, the Natural Resources Defense Council compiles its "Testing the Waters" guide to the cleanliness of beaches on the coasts and the Great Lakes. And every year, the results vary: Some of our beaches are consistently pristine; others, very much not. We took the data from this year's survey (documenting 2012 testing) and made three maps of the most popular beaches. The first shows the NRDC's star ranking, which includes both test results and the notifications posted when a beach tests poorly. The second shows how often tests exceeded the national standard for allowable pollutants (which we'll describe more below). The third shows the change in that figure between 2011 and 2012. A fourth map shows how often those beaches are tested for contamination.

View: NRDC rating | How often the beach exceeded standards | Change since 2011 | Monthly quality tests

 

The numbers and pins and data give you some information, but still don't convey the whole picture. For that, we turn to the NRDC's description of what it means when a beach exceeds national beachwater quality standards.

More than 80 percent of closings and advisories were issued because bacteria levels in beachwater exceeded public health standards, indicating the potential presence of human or animal waste in the water.

If a beach exceeded the national standard five percent of the time, that means that one out of every twenty samples had unhealthy levels of pollutants. Mostly fecal pollutants, that is.

And then we come back to that sickeningly low "one in 28" standard. We mean that literally. That standard is set at a level that allows 36 gastrointestinal illnesses for every 1,000 swimmers. So there's just enough pollution allowed to ensure that only 35 people out of every 1,000 get upset stomachs from ingesting human or animal waste. Says the NRDC: "Just imagine a restaurant where 1 in 28 people were allowed to get sick—these are simply unacceptable standards." 

Remember, these data are from testing conducted in 2012. That's where the percent change map might be helpful. If you see a beach that got worse between 2011 and 2012, the change from 2012 and 2013 could be even worse still. 

There's only one way to know how clean the water is: by testing it. That why we've included a map that shows the number of tests conducted per month. If a beach is tested daily, it's a decent bet that the water is safer to swim in; after all, dangerous levels of pollution (from, say, sewer run-off) would be detected sooner.

One final note. If you don't live near the coast, and perhaps think that the chlorinated water of a swimming pool is a better bet, you might want to think again. Nothing wrong with taking a cold shower and sitting in front of an air conditioner until autumn rolls around.

Photos: Competitors in the intentionally dirty New York Merrell Down & Dirty National Mud and Obstacle Series. (AP)

       

Exchange Your Aaron Hernandez Jersey – Just Not for Tim Tebow's

In its efforts to clean up the thoroughly strange mess that is Aaron Hernandez and his murder charge, the New England Patriots are encouraging fans to trade in their now-inappropriate Hernandez jerseys for those of another Patriots star. Apparently, though, the Patriots don't consider Tim Tebow to be one of those stars.

Hernandez (and two alleged accomplices) remains behind bars after being charged with the murder of 27-year old Odin Lloyd. Media scrutiny has dug up the tight end's violent history, including links to a shooting in Florida in 2007 and inquiries into a double homicide in Boston last year. In full-on PR mode, the Patriots released the tight end just before he was officially charged and are attempting to void the guaranteed parts of his 5-year, $40-million deal.

The jersey exchange program is part of that PR effort, allowing Pats fans to freely trade in a Hernandez jersey for another player's. The newly-signed Tebow — the all-American, take-him-home-to-mom quarterback — seemed a great choice for exchange. However, the fine print of the jersey exchange program only allows fans to trade for one of 11 Patriots players, ranging from quarterback Tom Brady to backup running back Shane Vereen. And none of those 11 is the former Broncos and Jets quarterback known for his wholesome public image (you know, of the kind that the Patriots desperately need right now). As the foil to Hernandez's folly, Tebow even broke up a bar fight between Hernandez and a club bouncer back in 2007 when they were teammates at the University of Florida.

The Patriots eagerly put Tebow jerseys for sale on its website just a few days after signing him last month. But that pre-order sale likely has yet to arrive to the Patriots official shop given the small amount of time since Tebow was signed. The website currently     

Helena Bonham Carter Is Your Antidote to 'Liz & Dick'

If Liz & Dick didn't satisfy any sort of desire you had to learn about the tumultous relationship between Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton—even if it did satisfy some desire you had to see LiLo make a fool of herself on screen, you cretin—here's your solution. It's a trailer for the BBC's Burton and Taylor starring steampunk princess Helena Bonham Carter as Taylor and The Wire's Dominic West as Burton. 

The film is smaller in scope than Liz & Dick, focusing just on Burton and Taylor's turn in a production of Noel Coward's Private Lives. At the time of the production in 1983, Burton and Taylor had already been married and divorced twice. The 1930 play, fittingly, is about a divorced couple. 

Of course, since this is about Burton and Taylor, the new trailer has the requisite alcohol guzzling, limousine riding, and bottle throwing, all of which might seem a little too familiar if you are passingly acquainted with Liz & Dick. (Also apparently movies about these two can only have titles that are essentially "name and name.") But never fear, because good acting can do wonders, as can what we hope is a good screenplay from William Ivory, who wrote the lovely 2010 film Made in Dagenham. Carter's Tim Burton-y oeuvre would make her potentially seem like a strange choice for Taylor, but she's got the look and Taylor's mid-Atlantic accent down. We're excited for this one in a much different way than we were excited for Liz & Dick. Sorry, Lindsay. 

       

The World Is Rooting for an Edward Snowden-Anna Chapman Romance

[image error]The only problem with the fascinating sexy spy story of Anna Chapman was that there was little evidence she had sexily used sex to seduce any American spies and deliver actionable intelligence for Russia. And then NSA leaker Edward Snowden got stranded in the Moscow airport.

"Snowden, will you marry me?!" Chapman tweeted this week. The whole world realized the potential for Snowden to complete Chapman's James Bond story. When The Wall Street Journal asked Chapman if she was serious, she responded, "you are welcome to use your imagination." The Taiwanese animators at NMA clearly hope she was serious, too, and on Friday imagined Chapman's daring spy movie-style rescue of Snowden from his airport-bound limbo. The animated Snowden and Chapman kiss while floating in the ocean next to a burning Obama "Change" oil tanker.

The Russian news site RIA Novosti, meanwhile, took the question of a Snowden-Chapman marriage very seriously. It seems the two cannot get married while Snowden remains trapped in the airport. The consular office at the Sheremetyevo airport "is not responsible for registering marriages." Snowden would need documents like his passport, which the U.S. has revoked. It seems the NMA option is the only one Chapman has.

       

The Brits Want Our Burgs

Two beloved American burger chains are now available to our English-speaking friends across the pond. Five Guys and Shake Shack opened yesterday and today, respectively, both in London's Covent Garden. That makes this an excellent weekend for Brits to remember that not only are we an independent nation, but a nation that knows how to grill a beef patty.

Five Guys, which started in Washington, D.C., in 1986 and currently boasts over 1,000 locations nationwide, zeroed in on the London market because the burger chain had a significant number of Facebook and Twitter fans in that city. Which leads us to wonder: who wants to follow a fast-food joint on Twitter, let alone one they possibly haven't been to? But anyway.

Five Guys, which had no European locations until now, isn't alone in making the transatlantic journey, with Shake Shack also joining the greasy fray. Danny Meyer opened the first Shake Shack in Madison Square Park in 2004, where New Yorkers still experience treacherously long lines. Today, there are branches in Dubai and Istanbul, not to mention Brooklyn. Shake Shack's culinary director Mark Rosati told CNN, "We've had our eye on London for a long time." 

As for design, Shake Shack London looks as if J.K. Rowling might have envisioned it (thus, it is admittedly cooler than any of our branches). It will also serve some local items like the Cumberland Sausage, which uses a "rare breed of pork."

In the spirit of our "special relationship" with the United Kingdom, we hope the burger joints thrive and our British friends get all the grease and calories they could ever hope for. That's what freedom is all about. Right?

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Five Guys has both American and British flags out front, which is a nice gesture.

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So Londoners, enjoy our burgers and the long lines to get them. Or you know, the queues.

       

The July 4th Cultural Weekend Extender

So the official holiday has come and gone, and you're probably still hungover and/or sunburnt. If you worked on Friday, you can't wait to get back to the long Independence Day weekend. Even if you didn't, you probably avoided the massive crowds for Despicable Me 2 and won't bother suffering through The Lone Ranger. Indeed, beyond more barbecues and more beer and maybe the beach, your options for the next three days of extended free-time bliss may seem limited. But there's plenty to do with yourself, much of it co-starring your air conditioner.

If you still want to go to a movie theater...

Try The Way, Way Back. This movie got a big vote of confidence at Sundance when Fox Searchlight picked it up for $10.5 million, and should be a lighthearted, indie alternative to the summer's tentpole blockbusters. It's written and directed by The Descendants co-writers Jim Rash and Nat Faxon (otherwise known as the dean on Community and Ben of the short-lived Ben and Kate) and tells the coming-of-age story of young Duncan (Liam James), who befriends an oddball water-park manager played by Sam Rockwell and has to deal with his mom's jerk of a boyfriend, Steve Carell playing against type. Reviews have been swell, so don't expect these theaters to be totally empty, but even so it's probably better than watching Johnny Depp feed a dead bird on his head. Just watch this clip and smile: 

If you really want to avoid any crowds (and live in New York or L.A.) you might want to check out the documentary about the band Big Star. Nicolas Rapold at the New York Times called Big Star: Nothing Can Hurt Me a "deserved tribute that puts us inside the music, and the head space, of a great, lost band." (That is also available on iTunes.)

[image error]If you just want to stay home and you have HBO...

HBO has made it very easy to re-watch The Sopranos all over again (or for the first time) by offering it on On Demand. (You can also watch on HBO Go.) Spending hours overanalyzing the American Dream through Tony's eyes is a pretty solid way to spend an American holiday, and you can honor the late James Gandolfini's great performance while you're at it. If your premium cable package has Showtime, you may want to explore the world of its new popular antihero by watching Ray Donovan before the second episode airs Sunday. 

If you really want to stay home and don't have a TV but you do have Netflix...

Dive into the various Netflix series—what, you haven't finished Arrested Development or House of Cards yet?!—so you can make educated comments at that BBQ about the state of the streaming service's original programming, what with the critically-acclaimed Orange is the New Black premiering next week. Also: here's your very necessary reminder that Breaking Bad is back for its final run August 11, so you probably want to start binging now. 

If you totally want to stay home and do have a TV but need to veg out...

Entertainment Weekly has a good list of all of the marathons running this weekend. Say Yes to the Dress, Roseanne, Sex and the City, Law & Order: SVU? They are all playing for ungodly amounts of time this weekend. Also of note: You can still find Independence Day, and you might want to relive a better Gore Verbinski-Johnny Depp combination by watching the Pirates movies (or, really, just the first one) on ABC Family. And don't forget to have your breakfast at Wimbledon this weekend.

If you want to avoid screens altogether...

Read a book. The Atlantic Wire has some suggestions for you. There are the must-reads, some Y.A. you can gobble up, and the books you'll need to read for Oscar season. Other recommendations? Alissa Nutting is being billed as "the summer's most controversial author" for her book Tampa, and we personally have fallen in love with The Yonahlossee Riding Camp for Girls by Anton DiSclafani. Maybe try reading it outside.

       

Europe's New War on Nightlife

Milan tried to institute a post-midnight ban on ice cream last month. Part of a clampdown on late-night food and drink sales, Milan’s mayor perhaps feared that crowds outside Gelaterias – I’m struggling here – might go on sugar high rampages through the night. The rule proved too silly to stand, thankfully, but it's only the strangest of a host of attacks on nightlife in European cities to have cropped up recently.

Take Madrid, for example. Long home to one of Europe’s latest-running social scenes, its city center was declared a "low-noise zone" last September, and the city council have been refusing to issue bar and club licenses ever since. Coupled with sales tax increases on drinks, this has led to 60 to 100 nightclubs closing in Madrid since the rules were put in place. This hasn’t actually made the city quieter, however. In a country where the Botellón – people meeting up and drinking outdoors – is already a longstanding tradition, young people are simply buying drinks from street vendors and moving onto the streets, creating a situation that suits no one.

MORE FROM THE ATLANTIC CITIES How Walkability Shapes Political Activism That's Right, Los Angeles Is Giving Up Car Lanes for Pedestrians The Western U.S. Heat Wave Is So Bad Pavement Is Causing 2nd-Degree Burns

Paris nightlife has likewise been struggling with extremely tight police control for some years, leading Le Monde to call the city the "European Capital of Boredom" back in 2009. Citing the regular rejection by police of one-night only club license applications and the censorious attitude of Parisian officialdom, a study by Paris City Hall itself, referenced in the Le Monde link above, found that staging club nights was far harder in Paris than in London, Berlin, Amsterdam or Barcelona.

Not that things are much rosier in these supposed nightlife capitals either. A report in the Netherlands' Volkskrant last week noted that young Amsterdammers are increasingly giving up on legal nightlife altogether. Instead, they’re flocking to covert underground events after a series of recent clampdowns on alleged public nuisances, including such heinous crimes as people barbecuing in the city’s Vondelpark. Even in Berlin things are looking dicey, though for different reasons. Here at least the city’s sprawling layout and abundance of post-industrial space means that nightclubs mostly have space to breathe and residents have space to sleep. Despite this, the walls are closing in on nightlife in Berlin too, thanks to the devastatingly efficient national performance rights group GEMA, somewhat similar to the RIAA in the U.S. GEMA is currently trying to make German bars and clubs pay a commission on all music they play, a move that could quickly make life impossible for small bars and clubs. Even Berlin’s most celebrated club, Berghain, has cancelled an expansion to free up funds for future royalty payments.

Late-night socializing has been a feature of European cities for centuries. That these clampdown efforts are all happening now may be due to shifting demographics: while Europe’s population is getting older and less tolerant of nighttime congestion, its young people are getting poorer, and are thus more likely to socialize outside. Given high unemployment levels, especially among the young, many also have fewer reasons to wake up early. Al fresco drinking has been a feature of Spanish cities for decades, but there’s been a marked recent move from bars to sidewalks in Athens, for example. Smoking bans have also upped noise levels, pushing smokers out of doors.

Areas in European cities where nightlife clusters have also changed socially. In the past, these once cheapish inner city areas offered enough ex-industrial space for bars and clubs to expand into. Formerly home to working class populations, their numbers have since thinned out by suburban drift, and in the past decade many of these city centers have come to be seen as the height of urban desirability, their populations growing markedly wealthier with each new wave of gentrification. Judging by the Europe-wide rash of anti-nightlife measures, these new populations are also particularly adept at making their voices heard by authority. It’s no small irony that it’s often been growing nightlife scenes that initially makes such areas attractive to wealthier outsiders and developers, who then find they can’t stomach it.

There’s more to backlashes against nightlife than high-end NIMBYism, of course. It’s easy to sympathize with long-term residents of areas like Budapest’s District 7 or London’s Dalston, who have found their once nocturnally quiet neighborhoods newly overrun by late-night crowds. Nightlife is often the thin end of gentrification’s wedge, as bars displace longstanding businesses, creating ugly contrasts such as this new London hipster diner that appeared to replace an Asian women’s advisory service.   

Protesting such crassness still doesn’t answer the question of where people who like dancing and drinking should go. Out to more unused ex-industrial spaces (if they can still find them)? Back in the late 1980s, the police backlash against the British rave scene’s use of far-flung warehouses was even more intense than what’s happening now.

Still, as older European generations are bequeathing young people little beyond unemployment, low pay and disillusion, it’s unsurprising that the wishes of Europe’s younger nocturnal crowds are being given low priority. Much of the debate around night and the city pits "concerned residents" against business owners, the actual people filling bars and clubs addressed as some form of noxious petri dish smear, of concern only for the volume of vomit, urine and stabbings they produce.

But for many city dwellers, nightlife is important as good transit, historic buildings or a lively cultural scene. Nightclubs and late bars are one of the few places where the city’s much-vaunted promises of diversity and social mingling can actually come true. Not just places where people get wasted, they’re also places where communities are made, where new music and ideas get created and spread. Sure, they’re driven by profit and can be elitist and exclusive (just like farmer’s markets, cafés and restaurants, sports clubs, theaters – the list goes on), but for many (especially minorities), clubs offer supportive, safer spaces absent elsewhere. I personally would be a sadder, narrower, less well-informed person if I hadn’t spent my early adulthood in the sort of places Europe’s anti-nightlife war is harassing out of existence. Letting unchecked noise spoil people’s sleep is not the answer, but neither is pressuring bars and clubs until the only places that can keep their doors open are the Walmarts of the clubbing world.